Curling Rock Birthday Cake

Here is the cake I made for my Dad’s birthday this year. I’m pretty darn proud of it, considering it is my first attempt with fondant.

I wish I had taken more step-by-step photos, but basically I made a standard layer cake (in a Wilton Contoured pan), filled and frosted and then started winging things with fondant. I was planning on making my own marshmallow fondant, but according to my friend who made Chelsea’s Angry Birds cake, 1). It was too late in the game to start making my own fondant and 2.) The humid weather we were having and marshmallow fondant don’t mix. They sell tubs of fondant at the Bulk Barn which are actually pretty tasty, so I picked up a white one and some black gel colour to make the grey for the ‘stone’ and yellow for the handle.

I was a bit worried about that handle… I didn’t know if straight up fondant or even gum paste would be dry enough to hold it up. I was scouring Michaels looking for something to bend to cover with fondant when Hubster saved the day – the handle of a 4L milk jug! Turns out that it was the perfect size… and free! I made the handle while the cake was cooling since it was the trickiest part. The rest of the cake I just covered with a large sheet of fondant that I marbled by adding in some black and not fully mixing it in. The lighter grey stripe is the same thing… just less mixed in. I brushed it all with some edible shimmer dust as well, but it didn’t do a whole lot for it. When it came to serving time, I just removed the handle and it sliced wonderfully.

The cake I used was Martha’s Versatile Vanilla Cake, which I forgot to put vanilla in… it was superb! It was baked in one deep 8″ contoured pan for 48 minutes and then torted and filled and frosted with a half batch of my Vanilla Butter Frosting, but using 1/4 cup of Trader Joes Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce in lieu of the vanilla. When I put the layers together I also drizzled a bit of salted caramel sauce under and over the filling.

I learned a couple of things while making this cake, the first being that fondant is very forgivable… if you don’t like the result, just start again and the second, don’t ever put sparklers on Dad’s cake. Ever. Again.